A Dream of Home

GIVEAWAY

CLIPSTON, AMY
A DREAM OF HOME

Moving to Pennsylvania wasn't in Madeleine's original plans. She should still be in California and should have married her pilot fiance a year ago-but death has a way of changing everything. Now the former Air Force flight nurse is living alone in Paradise, Pennsylvania, and working as a maid at the Lancaster Grand Hotel. She isn't exactly a widow . . . but she sure feels like one.

Saul Beiler isn't exactly a widower . . . but his wife is long gone. His eleven-year-old daughter, Emma, doesn't know that her mother fled the Amish community-and married another man-but she does know that her dat is lonely, and that a pretty young maedel just moved in next door. Madeleine's numb heart begins to thaw as she spends more time with the innocent and ever optimistic Emma. The stronger her friendship grows with the young girl, the more intrigued Madeleine grows about the humble, strong, man raising her on his own.

But even as a strange attraction pulls Saul and Madeleine across a stark cultural divide, they-and everybody else-have to wonder: What could they possibly have in common besides heartache? Will love allow Madeleine to finally find the home she's been dreaming of all along?

My Review:

It's easy to see why Amy Clipston is a best-selling author. She knows how to create a community readers keep wanting to come back to. This third in the Hearts of the Lancaster Hotel series is a delightful mix of old and new.  The old comes in the form of continuous storylines that carry over from A Mother's Secret and A Hopeful Heart. The author helpfully supplies family trees for the various families featured in this series and I'll admit I needed the refresher course but things quickly fell into place as I began to read. A Dream of Home can be read as a standalone novel but I think reading the other two books first will bring maximum enjoyment.

Madeleine and Saul's story is the new part, though we have met them both before in previous books. Theirs is an impossible, twisty, turny kind of romance that seems doomed from the start. It's about soul searching and following God's leading even when it doesn't make any sense. Tender and touching and breathtakingly beautiful,

There is still one more book in the series due out in April 2015 as is evidenced by a few dangling threads at the conclusion of this one. The author has definitely left me anxious for more.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

If you would like an opportunity to win a copy of A Dream of Home please leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you post a comment and add your email address, please use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in the address to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email please remember to put the title in the subject line so that it's easy for me to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday November 30 2014. Offer open to international readers. Good luck!